I'm probably not "elite" and I'm no hippy, but I enjoy listening to the Dalai Lama, even saw him once. Been reading a lot about Buddhism. I'm not religious, but I find a lot of the teachings pretty cool. I mean he tells fart jokes, and doesn't want everyone to convert to his religion. A smart, funny, 80 year old who preaches "be nice to each other". I'm ok with that.

Hippies are idiots who ruined the "green" "environmentally friendly" stuff for everyone. Imagine if it had been a Nixon republican spouting all the save the planet crap. There'd be wind farms on every corner.

CruJones:I'm probably not "elite" and I'm no hippy, but I enjoy listening to the Dalai Lama, even saw him once. Been reading a lot about Buddhism. I'm not religious, but I find a lot of the teachings pretty cool. I mean he tells fart jokes, and doesn't want everyone to convert to his religion. A smart, funny, 80 year old who preaches "be nice to each other". I'm ok with that.

/begin the anti-lama Fark rantings

Whatever your religious beliefs, Buddhist psychology has very sophisticated insights into the human condition. I'm not Buddhist but it provides food for thought.

"Just like the gentrification of a neighborhood where new, wealthy people displace people who have lived there longer," Ream writes, "the dharma is undergoing a process of gentrification in San Francisco today."

Wait, so... hang on, so like today's Buddhists are going to be priced out of Buddhism and have to find a less expensive religion? Can rich people do that?

miss jinxed:Hippies are idiots who ruined the "green" "environmentally friendly" stuff for everyone. Imagine if it had been a Nixon republican spouting all the save the planet crap. There'd be wind farms on every corner.

Uh, it kinda was Nixon and a few other mostly Western Republicans who got concrete action on what we would now refer to as a 'Green Agenda'.

And yes, I'm old enough to remember those days, Mo Udall and Tom McCall.

miss jinxed:Hippies are idiots who ruined the "green" "environmentally friendly" stuff for everyone. Imagine if it had been a Nixon republican spouting all the save the planet crap. There'd be wind farms on every corner.

GilRuiz1:"Just like the gentrification of a neighborhood where new, wealthy people displace people who have lived there longer," Ream writes, "the dharma is undergoing a process of gentrification in San Francisco today."

Wait, so... hang on, so like today's Buddhists are going to be priced out of Buddhism and have to find a less expensive religion? Can rich people do that?

"We're looking for a nice temple, something with Hindu gods but in the Zoroastrian price range. And preferably on the north side of town."

GilRuiz1:"Just like the gentrification of a neighborhood where new, wealthy people displace people who have lived there longer," Ream writes, "the dharma is undergoing a process of gentrification in San Francisco today."

Wait, so... hang on, so like today's Buddhists are going to be priced out of Buddhism and have to find a less expensive religion? Can rich people do that?

MrBallou:I know modern American "Buddhists" who always stop in for Starbucks before going to class to learn to free themselves from material desires. I suspect the irony is lost on them.

Um, what about Buddhism exactly do you think prohibits liking coffee, or even overpriced shiatty coffee?

Honestly, drinking the shiatty burnt stuff that more expensive than it should be just because it's convenient and minimizes the imposition on the self and others is a pretty good example of the middle path, the violation would be having a farking stick up your ass about your roast or where you buy it or whatever. Starbucks is like the opposite of conspicuous consumption.

The core message of the religion isn't to magically not need or want anything, it's to not let that shiat control you. Starving yourself on a mountaintop or whatever is actually explicitly discounted by the religion, mystery-cult splinter branches aside.

// This whole "magical ascetic indian" bullshiat image that westerners seem to have of the religion is half the reason American buddhists are usually morons. The other half is morons that think it's some sort of atheist spirituality. Buddhism is not (typically) atheist, you cultural illiterates.

// You can tell I'm not Buddhist from the way I don't even try to suppress the annoyance/rage.

jaytkay:miss jinxed: Hippies are idiots who ruined the "green" "environmentally friendly" stuff for everyone. Imagine if it had been a Nixon republican spouting all the save the planet crap. There'd be wind farms on every corner.

The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation onDecember 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order[pdxretro.com image 474x474]

To be fair, the EPA is one of maybe 5 or 6 government agencies in the history of the nation that was founded, immediately did its farking job, and consistently did it well right up to the point it was dismantled. Hell, even on like 1% of its necessary budget it's still one of the most cost-efficient and outright effective agencies we've got.

So his point about "if Nixon had done it, it'd have been done and done well" actually... kinda holds true. He did do it, and it worked really well. You realize the initial problem it was founded to solve was that parts of the US had rain so acidic you'd lose your paint job unless you re-waxed every week, right? Not even a thing anymore. The other big one was the ozone layer-- stabilized. It's an agency that farking gets shiat done without farking around.

// I'm actually normally reasonably sanguine on Bush 2's tenure, I'd call it overall mediocre and a bit clumsy rather than the abomination everyone else in my current party thinks it is. But taking another giant de-funding swipe at the EPA pushes my rage button pretty hard. Hell, I'm mad at Obama just for not trying to reverse it, is now mad I am about it.

MrBallou:I know modern American "Buddhists" who always stop in for Starbucks before going to class to learn to free themselves from material desires. I suspect the irony is lost on them.

I have a friend who posts articles about inequality and declares that the problem with the world is consumerism and the top 1% and literally the next day is showing the $4000 gaming rig he built from scratch.

Jim_Callahan:jaytkay: miss jinxed: Hippies are idiots who ruined the "green" "environmentally friendly" stuff for everyone. Imagine if it had been a Nixon republican spouting all the save the planet crap. There'd be wind farms on every corner.

The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation onDecember 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order[pdxretro.com image 474x474]

To be fair, the EPA is one of maybe 5 or 6 government agencies in the history of the nation that was founded, immediately did its farking job, and consistently did it well right up to the point it was dismantled. Hell, even on like 1% of its necessary budget it's still one of the most cost-efficient and outright effective agencies we've got.

So his point about "if Nixon had done it, it'd have been done and done well" actually... kinda holds true. He did do it, and it worked really well. You realize the initial problem it was founded to solve was that parts of the US had rain so acidic you'd lose your paint job unless you re-waxed every week, right? Not even a thing anymore. The other big one was the ozone layer-- stabilized. It's an agency that farking gets shiat done without farking around.

Totally. Acid rain is no longer a thing because we destroyed all manufacturing in the US and farmed all those pollutants out to China. Let the Chinese deal with smog so dangerous that elite Olympic athletes didn't want to go there for a few weeks lest they ruin their careers.

I'm being a little snarky here even if I agree with you that the EPA did a good job at fighting pollution in a lot of areas. But we still have a load of problems. EPA could do better if it could kill profit margins with fines.

bdub77:MrBallou: I know modern American "Buddhists" who always stop in for Starbucks before going to class to learn to free themselves from material desires. I suspect the irony is lost on them.

I have a friend who posts articles about inequality and declares that the problem with the world is consumerism and the top 1% and literally the next day is showing the $4000 gaming rig he built from scratch.

Well everyone is a hypocrite to some degree. If he's buying a new gaming PC every 6 months that would be wasteful. If he just bought one that he intends to use for the next 5+ years then maybe not.

MayoSlather:bdub77: MrBallou: I know modern American "Buddhists" who always stop in for Starbucks before going to class to learn to free themselves from material desires. I suspect the irony is lost on them.

I have a friend who posts articles about inequality and declares that the problem with the world is consumerism and the top 1% and literally the next day is showing the $4000 gaming rig he built from scratch.

Well everyone is a hypocrite to some degree. If he's buying a new gaming PC every 6 months that would be wasteful. If he just bought one that he intends to use for the next 5+ years then maybe not.

Most western "buddhists" don't even know the name of Buddha or the name of his wife, children or parents. Or the name of the Buddhist holy book. They even think that the Buddha is a chinaman or has some sort of oriental origin. fark, they can't even pronounce "buddha", they say is like "bud-a".

miss jinxed:Hippies are idiots who ruined the "green" "environmentally friendly" stuff for everyone. Imagine if it had been a Nixon republican spouting all the save the planet crap. There'd be wind farms on every corner.

Someone better get a history book, a history lesson, and a clue.

As other posters pointed out he was responsible for the EPA.

Also:

1. The Clean Air Extension Act of 19722. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 19723. The Safe Water Drinking Act4. Endangered Species Act

bdub77:MrBallou: I know modern American "Buddhists" who always stop in for Starbucks before going to class to learn to free themselves from material desires. I suspect the irony is lost on them.

I have a friend who posts articles about inequality and declares that the problem with the world is consumerism and the top 1% and literally the next day is showing the $4000 gaming rig he built from scratch.

You think that's bad? I personally know people--several of them, in fact--who talk all the time about fiscal responsibility, and then vote Republican.

bdub77:Totally. Acid rain is no longer a thing because we destroyed all manufacturing in the US and farmed all those pollutants out to China. Let the Chinese deal with smog so dangerous that elite Olympic athletes didn't want to go there for a few weeks lest they ruin their careers.

I'm being a little snarky here even if I agree with you that the EPA did a good job at fighting pollution in a lot of areas. But we still have a load of problems. EPA could do better if it could kill profit margins with fines.

Well, they tried the "bury people under fines" method and the "just shut it down" method, but what actually ended up working was cap & trade. So that's what they do now, and it's cut the cost of the program to like 1/4 of the original projections.

I'd disagree with the moving things to china bit, honestly. The industries we sank were mostly steel and machining, the industries that are the big polluters are paper, shipping, and power generation, all of which are still mostly domestic. There are some things that we pass to other countries that are big polluters, like Aluminium mining and rare-earth refining, but that's more because there aren't raw materials for those things domestically than anything else.

// Not that machining and steel going overseas isn't bad, but it's lost-jobs bad, not so much pollution-bad. There's associated CO2 emissions, that's about it. A problem, but a problem we have to deal with globally and not really in the agency's ballpark.

Who the fark writes this shiat? Seriously, the people over at Salon have lost their damn minds. Worthless. It's a shame too, because it used to be a very decent source for in-depth online journalism back in the late 90s.

bdub77:MrBallou: I know modern American "Buddhists" who always stop in for Starbucks before going to class to learn to free themselves from material desires. I suspect the irony is lost on them.

I have a friend who posts articles about inequality and declares that the problem with the world is consumerism and the top 1% and literally the next day is showing the $4000 gaming rig he built from scratch.

I'm sure to most of the people in the 3rd World, we FARKERs are the 1%...

Actually, I think it's ambiguous in this case. As the subject of a sentence, 'percent' can use either a singular or plural verb depending on what it is a percentage OF. In the headline, there is no prepositional object. In that case, you have to figure out what the inferred object is, and there are different ways you could read this:

1% [of the population] IS1% [of people] ARE

I guess it comes down to what prepositional object you think is implied.

Who would think that a movement founded by an aristocratic 1%er who kept his slaves when he abandoned his family and overindulged in pork while seeking enlightenment would appeal to indulgent self absorbed bankers?

pstudent12:Most western "buddhists" don't even know the name of Buddha

Which Buddha? Buddha is a state of being, not a specific person. One of them is Siddhartha, who you usually see in India. China has the fat jolly laughing buddha who's belly you rub for good luck. I forget his name.

Jim_Callahan:bdub77:Totally. Acid rain is no longer a thing because we destroyed all manufacturing in the US and farmed all those pollutants out to China. Let the Chinese deal with smog so dangerous that elite Olympic athletes didn't want to go there for a few weeks lest they ruin their careers.

I'm being a little snarky here even if I agree with you that the EPA did a good job at fighting pollution in a lot of areas. But we still have a load of problems. EPA could do better if it could kill profit margins with fines.

Well, they tried the "bury people under fines" method and the "just shut it down" method, but what actually ended up working was cap & trade. So that's what they do now, and it's cut the cost of the program to like 1/4 of the original projections.

I'd disagree with the moving things to china bit, honestly. The industries we sank were mostly steel and machining, the industries that are the big polluters are paper, shipping, and power generation, all of which are still mostly domestic. There are some things that we pass to other countries that are big polluters, like Aluminium mining and rare-earth refining, but that's more because there aren't raw materials for those things domestically than anything else.

// Not that machining and steel going overseas isn't bad, but it's lost-jobs bad, not so much pollution-bad. There's associated CO2 emissions, that's about it. A problem, but a problem we have to deal with globally and not really in the agency's ballpark.

CO2 emissions from the steel industry is actually huge though - the power required to make steel is massive. I think in China the steel plants account for 10% of all the power produced in China. The air pollution in our country has improved but energy has come at the cost of water pollution - there are literally hundreds of potential superfund sites in this country. I saw a map of the coal ash sites in NC and there are over 100 of them and almost every one is near the water.

There's no question the EPA has helped the environment and cap and trade might be effective as a policy but water pollution remains a big problem.

CruJones:I'm probably not "elite" and I'm no hippy, but I enjoy listening to the Dalai Lama, even saw him once. Been reading a lot about Buddhism. I'm not religious, but I find a lot of the teachings pretty cool. I mean he tells fart jokes, and doesn't want everyone to convert to his religion. A smart, funny, 80 year old who preaches "be nice to each other". I'm ok with that.

/begin the anti-lama Fark rantings

The Dalai Lama had some condition that required surgery. Someone asked him if it hurt. "Of course, it hurt." he answered. "Buddhism is not magic". That clarified about 400 pages of gobbledygook for me.

Mindfulness for the 1% is just a way of narcotizing their consciences.